Yedioth Ahronoth, Ynet to sponsor anti-BDS conference
International conference to include experts and leaders and will focus on the battle against movement to boycott Israel.
An international conference on battling the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement was announced on Friday by Yedioth Ahronoth and Ynet, which are spearheading the event.
The conference, set for March 28 in Jerusalem, is to include statesmen, political leaders and key figures in the fields of culture, finance, media, law, and academia from both Israel and around the world in a series of panels, talks and workshops.
The goal of the conference is to convene in one place all the experts and minds who have encountered (and continue to encounter) BDS so they can discuss ideas and share possible strategies to cope with the phenomenon.
Over the past six months, Yedioth Ahronoth published a series of investigative reports on the subject – interviews with people who are at the frontline of the battle and people personally affected by it, gave the issue ongoing coverage, and conducted in-depth inquiries into how the movement operates.
Conclusions from the conference are to be consolidated into a position paper to help fight the BDS movement.
The global BDS campaign seeks a global economic, academic, and cultural boycott of Israel, based on foreign allegations of an apartheid system, genocide, and crimes against humanity. While some may view the campaign as one directed solely at settlers in the West Bank, some of its leaders clearly take aim at Israel's very existence.
One example is Frank van der Line, a Dutch BDS leader, who told Yedioth that he "recently reached the conclusion that I don't recognize Israel as a state" and said the European Union should ban all Israeli products.
